


Beyond the Multiverse

by Book_Warrior7, Singing_Dream



Series: Breaching the Multiverse Saga [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (Referenced) Echotale, Alternate Universe - Underfell, Claiming, Fluff, Handplates, Heavy Angst, Multiple Languages, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV G, POV June, POV May, POV Sans, POV W. D. Gaster, minor hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2018-12-01 05:14:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11479362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Book_Warrior7/pseuds/Book_Warrior7, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Singing_Dream/pseuds/Singing_Dream
Summary: This work is bonus content for our main fic,Breaching the Multiverse. These will be one-shots or chapters written both by myself (Singing_Dream) and Book_Warrior7 in connection to the main work. But seriously, there are going to be parts that make absolutely no sense if you haven't read the main work, so please go do that before reading this one! Thanks!*Please note that not all chapters/one-shots will be canon to the main story. Those that aren't will be clearly marked in the chapter title.





	1. All the Puns (Chapter 5, Classic Sans' POV)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! So, remember how I promised there would be bonus content chapters coming? Well, here they are! Thing is, there won't be a set posting schedule for these, as I'm not the only one writing for them. As it is, there aren't that many bonus chapters worked up, but I really wanted to get the first one out there. So expect this one to update...very sporadically. That said, I hope you enjoy this one as usual, and see you next time for more! -S

Sans shuffled down the walk to the door, sighing to himself. Welp. Another day, another Reset. He briefly wondered how Frisk would come through the door this time - as themselves, or covered in Dust - then decided it didn’t matter. He’d deal with it either way, same as always.

Right on time, the door opened, and Sans teleported to his usual hiding spot, waiting to see how Frisk would turn out this time. But his brow bones raised in surprise and confusion when it wasn’t Frisk that walked through the door. Instead of the small brunette child, it was…an entirely different child, accompanied by an obviously older human. The two humans walked a short distance before the older stumbled over to a tree and sat down at its base. Curious, Sans blipped closer to listen to their conversation.

“You okay, sis?” asked the younger. Sisters, then. That explained the physical similarities, with the matching black hair and pale skin.

“I’m just beat from that fight. Toriel may not look it, but she really packs some heat,” the older replied. Sans couldn’t see her face well from the angle he was at, but from her voice, it was clear she was pretty wiped. And while a red flag went up in his mind at her words with the tiredness in her tone, he almost snickered at the pun she made anyway.

“Wow. That’s saying something, coming from you…ohmygod, you just punned, didn’t you?”

The little girl was smiling as the words left her lips, and her sister chuckled. So both of them liked puns, and the older one could make them. Points for sure, but there was still the nagging thought…they had just confronted Toriel instead of Frisk, with the red-Soul-ed human nowhere in sight. They weren’t even being mentioned. Did these humans even know Frisk? And for the new humans fighting Toriel…it definitely worried him. But short of performing a Judgement on them now (which he would need to confront them to do properly), he had no way of really knowing if they had harmed the ex-queen. Unless they outright talked about it, of course. But why would they do that?

After adjusting his position so he could see them better, he watched as the younger reached into her bag, pulling out two Spider Doughnuts and offering one to the older as she said something about eating. (He needed to pay closer attention to what they were saying. He was eavesdropping for a reason, after all.)

“It’s monster food, May.”

Okay, forget brownie points for the older. What was that line all about?

“So?” the younger (May, evidently) asked, voicing Sans thoughts on the matter in that one word.

“We don’t know how eating monster food will affect us. Especially if it really _is_ made of spiders.”

Sans calmed down once he heard the older girl’s reasoning. She was just worried about negative effects from them eating a foreign food item, then, and not being an asshole. Oops. Honest mistake, though, with humans.

“Well, it can’t be _bad._ Besides, in your state – food’s food,” May reasoned, holding out the confection again. After a bit of hesitation, he saw the older take the item, sniff it, then shrug before taking a bite. Once it was clear the treat was liked by both girls, they made short work of the doughnuts.

Now that he was watching the damage heal, Sans noticed just how rough of a shape fighting Toriel had left the older in. The younger didn’t have a scratch on her, and was obviously eating just to get the older to, but the damage to the taller human girl was still noticeable after finishing the healing food. He mentally cheered the goat-woman for doing a number on the human - after all, if it turned out they had harmed her in any way, at least she had put up a damned good fight before they did her in.

“You feeling any different?” he heard the older ask, making him tune back into the conversation. (Geez, Sans, focus!) The question had him curious - Frisk had said before that they never felt any different after eating the monster food. They had only noticed the healing properties when they saw their wounds actually healing from eating the food. But these humans were new. Was it possible that the older human could actually detect the healing magic in the monster food? Could both of them?

“Mm…not really.”

“Huh…I wonder if monster food has some sort of restorative effect, then…”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I feel almost completely better, but you didn’t feel any change. If it were an energizing effect, you’d probably feel something too. It wouldn’t be just me. And so far, there seem to be no negative side effects…”

Well, scratch the idea of both of them being able to detect the healing magic. Damn, though…the older human was sharp, picking up on the actual effects of monster food. But why was she able to sense the magic, when Frisk and her sister couldn’t? The younger ravenette shook her head at her sister.

“You are putting _way_ too much thought into this. All I need to know is that you’re feeling better,” she added with a smile. That smile made her seem so sweet and innocent and harmless…damn, she was a charming little thing, wasn’t she? It was a good thing all the Resets had trained him not to be drawn in by the charms of a young child.

Finally tuning back in when he noticed the pair getting up, he blipped along the path to follow them, like he would Frisk. Who knows - as new humans, maybe he could prank them and actually enjoy it again. But before long, he had to hide a little better, because he realized the older girl knew he was there. But when May called to her sister, she shook it off and kept walking. He’d have to be careful with her, evidently. She was extremely sharp, and the sense of power that emanated from her felt…not dangerous, per say, but…it was like nothing he’d ever felt from a human before, that was for damn sure.

“Something buggin’ ya?” the elder sister asked, focused on the little one. She did seem pretty gloomy…

“I…I’m still just sad about Toriel. That’s all,” May sighed.

Alarm bells clanged in Sans’ skull at that. Did they hurt Toriel after all? Did the little one have something to do with it, and now she was feeling guilty? He couldn’t see any Dust on either human, but…

The older’s sympathetic look transformed into a sly smile, and she said, “Then I have an idea of what would cheer you up. Wanna hear some jokes?”

Jokes? Really? What did she have in mind for jokes? May looked skeptical herself, but he wasn’t sure if her skepticism was because of the context (since it may or may not have something to do with Toriel dying), or for another reason. Eventually May consented, however, and the older instantly launched into her joke.

“Okay. So, you remember that play I was so into my freshman year? The one where everyone dies?”

She knew of a play where everyone died? Morbid. He hoped it wouldn’t be a dark humor type of joke.

“The Shakespeare one? _Hamlet?_ ”

“That’s the one. Well, I’ve heard that somewhere in the world is a _Hamlet_ themed restaurant, and all their dishes are named after characters or lines from the play. Like their most popular dish? It’s like Kung Pao Chicken, but they call it, ‘a murder most… _fowl_ ’.”

Oh…oh dear stars above…it was another pun. And it was a really good one. Sans almost started cracking up from where he was, and he had to stifle his reaction as he watched May try to do the same. (Emphasis on try. She giggled and grinned anyway, encouraging her sister.)

“And one of their sandwiches – it’s called the ‘Prince _Ham_ -let’.”

Another giggle, and May’s pale little cheeks were turning red as she tried to contain her laughter. Damn, she was cute…just as cute as Frisk, if not cuter.

“They also have this special dish you can get if you’re just having a bad day. The wait staff call it the ‘Ophelia’.”

“I get it! Because they’d like to say ‘oh, I feel ya!’ God, those are terrible!” May cried between bursts of laughter. The older, however, just grinned.

“Ah, but you’re laughing and smiling. So I’d say they _served_ their purpose.”

“Ohmygod, STOP.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you say you wanted _more_ puns? Because I can-”

 

“No! No, stop! That’s enough!”

 

“You feeling better, then?”

 

“Yeah, I feel much better,” May smiled gratefully, her smile just as sincere and charming as before. “Thanks, sis.”

 

“Of course, May. Anything for you.”

 

Oh…the tone of the tall girl’s voice as she said that struck a nerve with Sans. It sounded exactly like how Sans himself would say it to Papyrus. Evidently, the elder felt a strong bond with the younger…and from the smile on May’s face, she felt the same for her sister.

 

A second later, though, and Sans was almost caught again by the older female as she whipped around, scanning the area quickly. As she hung back, scratching her head in confusion, May had run ahead, and called to her.

 

“Come on, June! Hurry up!”

 

Huh…so their names were May and June…he sensed some kind of irony or some other amusing something going on here. But save that knowledge for later, because they were now approaching the bars Papyrus had built. That was his cue…

 

Teleporting behind them, he grinned to himself, then started up with his usual shtick.

 

“ **d o n ‘ t y o u k n o w h o w t o g r e e t -** ”

 

Then June caught him off guard, whipping around fast enough to actually land a hit on him. In that moment, he was grateful for two things. One, they weren’t actually in combat, so her hit didn’t count for actual damage. Two, he could feel from the hit alone that her intent wasn’t to hurt him, but defend herself and protect her sister, neither of which would count for damage as well. Still, when June backhanded him and sent him flying into a tree (damn she was strong, even for not having the proper intent behind her attack), it was more the impact with the tree that hurt than anything.

 

“June!” May cried, June looking shocked and alarmed.

 

“Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit. I-I didn’t mean to, I swear!”

 

Sans held as still as possible, wanting to see how the girls were going to react to this situation. It was a good sign both were panicking some at the thought of accidentally attacking someone, and thus putting points in their favor for having not harmed Toriel after all.

 

“Well that’s not going to help!” May continued, and it took a lot of self-control for Sans not to flinch or move when he saw the little girl dart to his side.

 

“What was I supposed to do, May? It startled me!”

 

Yeah, that was definitely his fault. He probably should have thought through scaring an older human. A kid was one thing, but June? Being older, she was much more unpredictable. Not his smartest choice, for sure.

 

“Well, you didn’t have to hit it!” the younger snapped, then turned back to him. “Hey, a-are you okay? My sister didn’t hurt you, did she?”

 

Well, there was little doubt in his mind by now that May had to have a green Soul, for how kind and thoughtful she was. Still, when she put a hand on his shoulder, he decided to try pranking the two humans, and didn’t answer her. Waiting until she gently shook his shoulder to do it, he purposely allowed his skull to disconnect from his spine for the prank.

 

May instantly recoiled and screamed, scrambling away from him in terror. Yeah, the whoopee cushion would have worked better for poor May, but June’s reaction was worth it. Now she was really freaking out, and he had to guess it was hard to actually freak her out.

 

“ITS HEAD CAME OFF!” May screeched.

 

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…” June chanted softly, only her dark eyes and blood-red lips not frozen. Her eyes darted around at the scene, half panicking/half assessing the situation.

 

“ITS HEAD CAME OFF!” May continued to yell.

 

“Oh my god, this is bad…”

 

“ITS HEAD CAME OFF!”

 

“I can see that, thank you!” June finally snapped back. May whipped between looking at Sans and her sister, tears of fear starting to form in the corners of her eyes. (Aw…he was starting to feel a little bad for scaring the poor kid…)

 

“YOU KILLED IT BY HITTING IT INTO A TREE!”

 

“I did not!” June replied, rounding on the little girl, looking the most panicked yet just from those few words.

 

 

“Did so!”

 

“I barely touched it!”

 

“Yeah, barely touched it RIGHT INTO A TREE!”

 

“I told you, I was startled! I couldn’t help it!” June argued, and May just shook her head, wiping the forming tears out of her eyes.

 

“Well, you better help me figure out how to fix it, because we can’t just leave it here!”

 

Yep, May was a kind Soul, no question. June was running her hands through her hair as she thought, clearly searching for some kind of plan to calm her sister.

 

“Uh, okay. We-we just need to, um…”

 

It was now that Sans chose to go ahead and stop playing dead, getting up and making a show of feeling around for his skull. Once he had a hold of it, he carefully spun his skull around to the right orientation, then snapped it back into place. He saw both girls flinch, May more so than June.

 

“you got me pretty good,” Sans commented to them, smiling at his own amusement. “that’s going to hurt for a while…”

 

And he wasn’t lying. His back was going to sting for a while from June hitting him into the tree, and he could still feel where her hand had connected with his face. It wasn’t so bad, though.

 

Then May fluttered her eyes, looking sick, and fainted.

 

“Shit, May!” cried the older girl, instantly by the younger’s side. Sans froze, all humor leaving him. Shit, he hadn’t meant to scare her that bad! Fuck, talk about starting off on the wrong foot…

 

Then June glared harshly at him, her dark green eyes seeming to pierce right through to his Soul.

 

“The fuck’d you do to her?” June snarled, pulling the unconscious child closer to her. Damn, that look could start a fire, it was so heated. And Sans instantly knew he didn’t want to be on the business end of that look.

 

“nothing. i just said you hit me pretty good. that’s all, i swear.”

 

She didn’t seem to buy it (even though it was the truth), but turned her attention back to her sister all the same. Yeesh, was he that bad with Papyrus…? Part of him hoped not, knowing full well he probably was. That fierce protective instinct ran deep through both of them, then. He wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

 

He focused again when he heard May groan, seeing her twitch as she started to come around. Well that was a relief…he had enough to worry about with these two replacing Frisk and the possible implications of that for the timeline. With the sense of power June gave off, the last thing he needed on his plate was dealing with the older girl’s wrath should something happen to her sister.

 

“What…what happened…?”

 

“You panicked after I accidentally hit a monster and its head fell off. You thought I killed it, but, uh…well, it got back up. When it put its head back on and talked to us, you fainted.”

 

Well that was a bit demeaning, being called “it.” But Sans knew she didn’t mean it.

 

“Oh…Oh!” May declared, then paled, looking faint again. “Ohh…”

 

Oh stars, not again…

 

“Oh no you don’t.”

 

June promptly grabbed a handful of snow and shoved it into her sister’s face, causing the child to cough and splutter and recover very quickly. It would have been more humorous to watch if he wasn’t actually concerned about the kid.

 

“June! What the heck?”

 

“You are _not_ gonna faint on me again. You almost gave me a heart attack the first time,” June added sternly, reminding the skeleton of Undyne. All toughness and fire and grit on the outside, but compassionate and caring underneath. It was…weird how similar the two females were, now that he thought about it…almost as if someone had taken his own personality and Undyne’s and combined them. He was glad neither human girl was looking, as he had to suppress a shudder at the thought.

 

“Good,” June said, turning to Sans and getting his attention again. “Now…I believe we both owe this nice…um, person…an apology. I’m sorry for smacking you around like that.”

 

“And I’m sorry for freaking out like that. Are you okay?”

 

Huh…they actually apologized. That was nice. Especially given that June’s, though lacking in warmth, was clearly sincere. May’s was much kinder, though, as she looked at him with a cautious, yet worried little tilt of her head.

 

“yeah, i’m fine. i’ll probably be _bone-tired_ for a while, but i’ll be alright. i was going to have you shake my hand while i held this whoopee cushion, but…seems a little _heavy-handed_ now. i’m sans, by the way. sans the skeleton.”

 

May blinked at first, but started giggling at his puns, seeming delighted. Just like that, he’d won her over, it seemed. She stood and adjusted her clothes before sticking out her hand to shake.

 

“I’m May. Mayflower Skies.”

 

Sans’ smile was easy and polite as he reached for her hand. (Though part of him hated how easily she was getting to him. Had everything he’d gone through with Frisk really taught him nothing?)

 

“nice name, kid.”

 

He shook her hand, but almost flinched back in confusion. Looking to his hand after she let go, he saw…a Spider Doughnut. Somehow, the little girl had gotten one out and had slipped it to him without his noticing her doing so. Damn…she’d probably make a good pick-pocket. It was a bit of a creepy thought that contrasted sharply with her cute looks and sweet demeanor. Still the girl grinned proudly, but quickly reigned it in and dug the toe of her shoe into the snow sheepishly.

 

“In case my sister did hurt you.”

 

Oh…wow. He was actually kind of touched by the gesture, as she had been so scared before. She really _was_ a green Soul – she had to be, to be so generous and thoughtful. His suspicion was confirmed a moment later when her chest glowed the tiniest bit with her kindness, a vivid and vibrant shade that rivaled the green Soul they already had in purity.

 

To know that a human – a kid, especially one that looked as young as she did – could actually be so sweet and gentle…it warmed his Soul. And his cheekbones, evidently. Damn.

 

“t-thanks, kid,” he mumbled past the lump that had formed in his non-existent throat. “i’ll just…save it for later. so, you are…?”

 

June introduced herself (Juniper, huh? Pretty, but it made sense she shortened her name), and when he finally got to ask about the irony of their names, the sisters explained that the month-based nicknames were a family tradition of sorts. It was a bit like skeleton monsters being names after fonts. Funny. But he was well past his cue for Papyrus coming by, so it was time to get the ball rolling…

 

June had been hesitant to help, but one set of puppy-eyes from May, and she caved. (Why were they making a special exception for this? Did they not have time to be helping out? Why would they think they didn’t? Was something after them? …or some _one?_ Sans really wanted to know, but it wasn’t the time to ask, dammit.)

 

Hiding the two in separate spots (neither one would fit behind the lamp that Frisk always used), he stood out by the path and waited. There was Papyrus, right on time. And saying the same thing he always did…damn did Sans hate these time loops. But he spoke on autopilot, delivering his lines exactly like he knew he was supposed to. But after a minute, he jumped, hearing a squawk of pain from behind the boulders where June was hiding. That same moment, she fell into view, landing face first in the snow.

 

“SANS? IS THAT…A HUMAN?!”

 

“uhhhh…actually, i think those are boulders,” he answered, sweating a bit. That was his line, but it was too early for this bit…dammit, June! What the hell happened?

 

“WHAT’S THAT _BEHIND_ THE BOULDERS, SANS?”

 

“uuhhhhh…”

 

The taller ravenette sat up now, looking thoroughly annoyed and embarrassed, turning over so that she was properly sitting rather than laying in the snow. She gave a light tap to her knee and winced, muttering under her breath as she scowled at her knee. Had she hurt it somehow? Man, what bad timing…

 

“these humans really don’t know how to play along, do they?” he mumbled, which earned him a glare from June.

 

“I heard that! I hit my knee! Don’t act like you could do any better,” she snapped, though her words and look held no real venom to them.

 

Papyrus, excited as ever to actually see a human, did his usual “you shall not pass” routine before running off like he was supposed to. As predictable as he was at this point, Papyrus was still his loveable goofball of a brother, and it made Sans smile just a bit. May’s giggling drew his attention as she left the sentry station, though.

 

“He’s…energetic,” the little girl commented diplomatically, though it was clear she already liked Papyrus herself.

 

“yeah, he’s pretty cool. and i guess i should thank you. you saved me a _skele-ton_ of work just now.”

 

The taller of the two rolled her eyes with a slightly dramatic groan, May giggling again. She was a real giggle-box, wasn’t she?

 

“What, been working yourself to the _bone_ lately?”

 

June paused as soon as the words left her mouth, slapping her hand to her face. Sans couldn’t stop his skeletal grin from stretching wider in glee at her pun.

 

“i can appreciate a lady who makes good bad puns – and certainly one who laughs at them,” (cue exaggerated wink to May, who laughed predictably) “don’t worry about my brother. he’s harmless. and i’ll be keeping an eye socket out for you two. i’ll be up ahead if you need me.”

 

With that, he spun and started walking the “wrong” direction, teleporting once he was sure they couldn’t see him anymore. Oh, he’d be ahead of them, alright. He actually did need to keep an eye socket on them. After all, two new, mostly unpredictable anomalies roaming the Underground when one was clearly volatile and in possession of some serious, unexplained power?

 

There was no way he could afford not to care this time around.

 


	2. The Girls Babysitting Papyrus (Science, June's POV)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gaster's text is in the ROT2 cipher we've been using in the main work, but the translations will be in the end notes this time. -S

June walked from the kitchen to the living room, a small frown on her face. She had just finished putting away clean dishes for Sans and Gaster and had noticed her two charges were oddly silent, prompting her to check on them. Since the girls’ arrival at the skeleton family’s home, May and Papyrus rarely were quiet or still for anything. Not when June had cooked, not when they were sitting down to eat, not when June had May help her scrub all the permanent marker off Papyrus’ bones (which was as big a pain in the ass as she had expected it to be) then turned on her own sister to do the same, and certainly not when she had begun cleaning up the kitchen while they played in the living room.

Her brow creased in concern, her frown deepening to see the two kids nowhere in sight. Then June turned to look upstairs and spotted the door to what she assumed was Papyrus’ room standing ajar, a soft voice floating out. Cautiously, she crept up the stairs, the voice getting stronger as she approached the open door. Not really sure what to expect but not wanting to risk letting her guard down, June prepped her ice powers to lash out at the unknown being beyond the door, but instantly calmed when she realized the voice she heard was her sister’s. Dropping the power so not to scare the kids, she quietly shuffled to stand in the doorway, a smile resting on her lips at the sight of May reading a bedtime story to Papyrus.

They’d had a long day, so it made sense that he’d gotten tired and wanted to go to bed. And since Paps was still so young, of course he’d wanted a bedtime story. Since June had been busy, May was more than happy to step in. By the time she’d finished, closing the book and creeping to the door so not to wake the sleeping skeleton, she was pretty tired herself.

The little girl yawned as she closed the door to Papyrus’ room, a low chuckle escaping the older ravenette.

“Come on, baby girl,” June murmured, gently steering her sister towards the stairs. “Now it’s your turn.”

“Are you gonna come to bed?” May whispered, craning to look up and behind her at the older girl. June smiled faintly in return.

“Soon,” she replied, breaking off to find some pillows and blankets for them to use.

While she didn’t mind taking the couch herself, June wished for a moment that Sans and Gaster at least had a guest bedroom, so May could sleep in a proper bed. But unless she decided to enter the second bedroom (which she guessed was either Sans’ or Gaster’s, which prompted her to wonder which combination of the three skeletons shared rooms) and invade the occupant’s privacy, the girls were stuck sharing the couch. Not that either of them really minded that much.

By the time Sans and Gaster came home that night, June had tucked May into bed and had started drawing in one of her notebooks to keep herself occupied. When the front door opened to reveal the two skeletons, she made silent motions for them to be quiet, gesturing to May’s sleeping form on the couch, then up towards Papyrus’ room. They nodded, closing the door behind them as softly as possible before they both decided to settle at the table for the moment.

“what are you doing still up?” Sans whispered to her, Gaster tilting his head to indicate he had wondered the same thing. Rather than answer right away, June put her notebook aside, went to the kitchen, and fetched something for them to eat. Both skeletons’ eye sockets widened at the sight of the food when she placed it in front of them.

“It’s just leftovers,” she murmured as they dug in, a small smile on her face, “but I thought you boys might be hungry when you got back. I had a hunch you’d work yourselves _to the bone_ for this little project, and would forget to eat.”

Sans snickered at the pun, Gaster just grinning and shaking his head.

"Vjku ku swkvg iqqf, Lwpg, vjcpm aqw. Dwv kv fqgu pqv cpuygt vjg swguvkqp."

She waited for Sans’ translation before letting a slightly nervous wry chuckle escape her, rubbing the back of her neck.

“Damn. Usually people take the bait. Alright, I’ll bite. I’m up because I’m an insomniac. I can’t sleep.”

"Ecp'v, qt yqp'v?"

June’s eyebrows shot up, taken aback by how easily Gaster saw through her.

“come on, june. we’re scientists. there’s not much that gets by us. dietary and sleeping needs aside,” Sans added with an eye-roll when she gave him a pointed look. “besides, kind of hard to miss that you have a problem when you’re screaming your head off in your sleep. given you just told us you’re an insomniac leads me to believe it’s probably self-induced insomnia. so what’s the issue? is it the night terrors?”

June hesitated, sighing and running a hand through her hair. Caught.

“Yes and no. Yes because that’s how the whole insomnia thing got started. No because…I thought I grew out of it. I thought the night terrors were over. I guess I was wrong.”

"Uq aqw ctg wukpi aqwt pkijvu vq cxqkf uqogvjkpi gnug. Yjcv, kh aqw fq pqv okpf oa rtakpi?"

“I…I don’t like to talk about it.”

“it might help if you did. just saying.”

“I don’t need a fucking therapist,” she growled at a normal volume, leveling a glare at both of them, doing her best not to make too much noise. She glanced over at the couch, then up at Papyrus’ door, checking that both kids were still asleep. There was a pregnant pause where all three waited for a tiny voice to rise. But neither one did, so they all relaxed, June sitting back down and sighing.

“Sorry,” she whispered, “I just…I don’t…talk about things well. Communication’s not really my thing. Usually, that’s May’s job. I just sit back and make sure she’s safe. Ya know, make a few threats here, insert a few evil glares there, get my hands dirty once or twice when someone actually has the gall to hurt her. If I’ve got a problem, I deal with it. And yeah, I’ll be the first to admit, my methods for dealing with my problems are…not exactly conducive for a healthy mental environment. But I soldier on, mostly because I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know any other way to be. Angry and bitter towards the world is just my thing.”

“except when it comes to may.”

June froze for a second, meeting his eyes briefly. Then she curled up in her chair, her expression softening.

“Except when it comes to May,” she agreed, her voice barely audible. “I can honestly say that she is the reason I’m even here right now. And not because she went and played with something she shouldn’t have, forcing a set of circumstances that were otherwise impossible. No, what I mean is…she’s the whole reason I’m not six feet under right now.”

"K dgi aqwt rctfqp?"

“It’s a figure of speech. When a humans says ‘six feet under’, they mean six feet under the ground. Meaning dead.”

“what?” Sans hissed, he and Gaster looking both confused and a bit horrified.

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t know what happens to monsters when they die, but for humans, our bodies are left behind when we die. And in the culture I come from, when a person dies and leaves their body behind, there are two options with what to do with the body. The most common one is to dress the body up nice, put it in a special box designed to hold it, and lower it into ground to be buried. Well, really, that’s the extremely over-simplified version of it, but…yeah. And traditionally, when you dig a grave – the hole the body is put in – it’s dug six feet down. Hence the correlation to the terms ‘six feet under’ and death.”

“and…the other option?”

“Burn the body until all that left are ashes. What the family of the dead person does with the ashes after that…it’s complicated, but most of the time, they’re kept in a special sort of vase and put on display somewhere in the family’s home. Morbid, I know. Humans are weird. Hell, I _am_ one and I don’t get us most of the time. But anyway, back to my point a minute ago. If it weren’t for May, I literally would not be sitting here talking to you right now.”

"Dgecwug aqw yqwnf dg...ukz hggv wpfgt? Aqw yqwnf dg fgcf kh pqv hqt aqwt ukuvgt? Yja? Jqy ecp c ejknf jqnf nkhg cpf fgcvj kp jgt jcpfu nkmg vjcv?"

“Uh, okay, one question at a time. One and two, yes, I would be dead if not for her. Three, it’s complicated, and I’d rather not get into it right now. Four, she can’t. She…” June hesitated, speaking slowly as she searched for the right words. “It was very unusual circumstances that lead to my life being…dangerously close to being cut short, and she…she said the right thing at the right time and saved me. She saved my life, and without her…I don’t even want to imagine a world, _any_ world – especially mine – without her in it. You guys done?”

She added this last bit with a small gesture to their empty plates, long forgotten by the heavy topics of conversation. She took their surprised silence (and the fact that they were empty) for a yes and jumped up, snatching the plates and making a break for the kitchen to clean them.

She was a bit surprised to find that neither skeleton followed her, but she was glad for it. She hated talking about herself, or anything personal, really. Unless she was talking about May, or something to do with the raven-haired ball of sunshine. But even in that, there were certain things she didn’t talk about, and the topic they had been on was one of them. June’s past was something neither Skies sister liked to dwell on if they could help it, no matter how much May’s light had tried to banish the shadows lingering there.

The tattooed teen was so focused on her train of thought, she hadn’t noticed that the first plate was already clean. She, however, had continued to scrub at it with increasing vigor until her hands slipped and the plate went flying. When the plate disappeared from her hands, her mind snapped back to reality, but not quick enough to stop it from shattering as it loudly clattered back into the sink.

“Fuck!” she hissed at herself, yanking her hands out of the sink as the shards bounced around. When silence fell once more, she punctuated it with a heavy sigh, adding a soft, “Shit…” and rubbing her damp and soapy hands across her face.

May had been half awake from the moment the older ravenette had raised her voice, slipping in and out of the conversation as she dozed, their voices keeping her awake. But when June had gone to clean their plates and it had been quiet, she’d almost fallen back asleep entirely…until the plate broke, and she bolted upright on the couch with a gasp. Normally a light sleeper anyway, the loud noise now had her full attention, and she flung back her borrowed bedding, jumping up from the couch. The little girl took two steps towards the kitchen when it occurred to her that Papyrus might have been woken up by the noise as well, her suspicions confirmed when she glanced towards the stairs and saw Papyrus’ door open, the small skeleton easing out of his room. She quickly darted to the stairs instead, running up the stairs and to his side before he could get farther than the railing.

“WHAT HAPPENED?” Papyrus asked, his voice the softest she’d ever heard it.

“I don’t know, Paps. But it’s okay. I’ll check it out. You just go back to bed. Try to get some sleep, okay?”

Papyrus nodded, looking a little unsure, but went back to his room like he’d been told. Once May was sure he would stay put, she made her way back down the stairs and to the kitchen. Sans and Gaster were in the kitchen with the taller girl, but were standing there awkwardly, looking a little anxious. Despite the worry, Gaster was stepping closer to June, reaching out and about to say something when May came into the room.

“June?” she asked, causing all three heads to turn. “Are you okay?”

To say June looked like hell was an understatement. In the dim light of the kitchen, she looked more like an apparition than a living being: pale and almost-too-thin and haggard, the exhausted way she slumped where she stood and weary expression highlighting the dark circles under her normally sharp eyes. But upon seeing her sister, she rearranged her face to be more gentle and soothing, the ghost-like appearance disappearing for a minute as she walked over and knelt in front of the child.

“Yeah, I’m okay, baby girl. Just had my head in the clouds and wasn’t paying attention. Dropped a plate and it broke. Sorry I scared you and woke you up. Is Papyrus…?”

“He woke up, but I sent him back to bed. I don’t know that he’ll sleep until he knows it’s safe, though.”

June winced, another apology on the tip of her tongue. May shook her head, cutting off the older girl.

“Don’t worry about Paps. I’ll take care of it. He knows I was going to check it out anyway. He’d just worry if I didn’t come tell him everything’s okay.”

The older girl nodded, a grimace of guilt still lingering on her face.

“Just come back and let me tuck you in to bed again, alright?”

May nodded this time, giving her sister a tired smile before turning and trudging off to go reassure Papyrus. June straightened and sighed, running a hand through her hair before turning back to the two skeletons still in the kitchen.

“Sorry about that, guys. I’ll come join you at the table again in a minute. I’m just gonna get this cleaned up first. Sorry I broke your…thing. Plate. God, couldn’t think of the word for a second. Ugh, it’s been a long day. Tell you what, don’t bother waiting up for me, just go on up to bed. I’ll be sleeping down here with May anyway – assuming I can get some sleep, but whatever – anyway, just…go, go sleep. It’s late, you two have work in the morning, you need your rest to think straight and do science-y stuff, blah, blah – _aah!_ ” she hissed, shards of the ceramic dish biting into her hands. She instantly released them, dropping them back into the sink, but the damage was done, the cuts in her fingers and palms weeping crimson tears. Sans and Gaster came rushing back into the room, one pulling her away from the sink, the other using his magic to whisk the broken shards to the trash before coming to examine her wounds as well.

“oh stars, we know so little about human anatomy,” Sans muttered to Gaster, both looking equally panicked. “are-are you supposed to be doing that when you’re hurt? is this normal? what do we do?”

“Let go for starters! You’re holding my hands so tight, it’s making them bleed more. And yes, that’s – _gah_ – normal. It sucks and gets everywhere and hurts like hell, but it’s normal.”

The teen stepped back over to the sink and jerked her head, turning the water back on with her telekinesis so she could rinse the blood off her hands. Sans and Gaster seemed to calm some at her revelation.

"Uq vjg tgf nkswkf ngcmkpi htqo aqw ku c iqqf vjkpi, vjgp."

“No, not really,” she answered when Sans translated. “I mean, yes, it’s normal, but it’s not a good thing. In fact, it’s actually kind of a bad thing. If a human is bleeding – leaking the red liquid – it means they’re hurt. They’ve taken damage.”

June proceeded to clean her wounded hands under the running water as she talked, oblivious to the monsters’ growing fear and panic behind her.

“And if a human has a lot of wounds, like this, they bleed a lot. And if they’re bleeding a lot, that’s really bad. Especially if the wounds are deep or big, because that means we bleed even more, and that’s worse. And if a human loses too much blood, we can die. Which is just the fuckin’ cherry on top of it all, isn’t it?”

“oh my stars, are you going to be okay? are you going to live? please don’t die! for the love of all things, please don’t die because you cut your hands on a broken plate!” Sans practically shouted, taking her hands out from under the water and wrapping them up in his lab coat. She looked at the short skeleton blankly for a second before she started snickering and trying desperately not to laugh, realizing what had happened. She barely even noticed the pitter-patter of May’s and Papyrus’ small feet running into the kitchen from Sans’ shouting.

“Oh my gosh, what happened?” May cried, running to June’s side. “Is she okay?”

"Ujg ewv jgt jcpfu qp vjg rkgegu qh vjg rncvg vjcv dtqmg cpf pqy ujg ku dnggfkpi!" Gaster cried, Sans barely translating before babbling about June’s explanation about how bleeding and injuries work for humans. May calmed down once she understood what had happened, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at her sister. One look at the younger girl’s face, and June just lost it, busting up laughing, much to the confusion of the three skeletons.

“June! That’s not funny! You really scared them!” May cried over the taller girl’s laughter, stomping her foot in annoyance. “You made them think you were gonna die! I mean, I’d be worried too – and I am, don’t get me wrong – but that was a really mean trick to play on them!”

“It-it wasn’t a trick! I honestly didn’t mean to freak them out, I was just trying to explain, and-and they took it the wrong way!” June wheezed between bouts of laughter. May just puffed out her cheeks and waited for June to calm down, and when she finally did, she was still grinning like a maniac.

“June, explain it to them,” the little girl insisted, pointing to the skeletons. June turned her wide smile at them, holding Sans’ lab coat over her still injured hands.

“Okay, so, all that stuff I was saying a minute ago? About bleeding being bad and humans can die from losing too much blood and all that? Well, see…I’m actually not in any danger of that happening from cutting my hands on the plate. Yeah, I have several injuries on my hands, but they’re all minor. Like, the cuts hurt and they’re bleeding, but it’s barely anything. Seriously, give them a couple days at the most, and my hands will heal on their own as if nothing happened.”

“so…you’ll be okay? you’re not going to die from this?”

“Nope. I’m perfectly fine. Well, as okay as I’m gonna get right now. But really, there’s nothing to worry about. I’m not dying any time soon, I can promise you that,” she added with a roll of her eyes. Sans and Gaster visibly relaxed, the shorter of the two adult skeletons stepping over to carefully unwrap her hands.

"Oa, vjcv ycu swkvg vjg uectg. K vjkpm yg cnn jcxg jcf gpqwij gzekvgogpv hqt qpg pkijv. Dcem vq dgf, ejknftgp," Gaster said softly to May and Papyrus, the youngest skeleton translating quietly for May as he took her hand and pulled her out of the room.

There was a long pause where Sans focused solely on detangling his lab coat from the teen’s hands, Gaster trying not to hover.

“Sorry for nearly giving you guys a heart attack. Or whatever your equivalent to a heart attack is,” June chuckled wryly, blushing lightly as she gave them both a sheepish look. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“how under the earth did i get this so…huh? oh, yeah, well…accidents and misunderstandings happen,” Sans replied, blushing a little in return, a shy smile on his own face.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t exactly…helpful. I was irritated that I’d hurt myself and I’m tired, so I wasn’t really in the mood to…be coherent, I guess. No, not coherent. Clear. I wasn’t clear enough and it made you freak out. I was really thoughtless and careless. I’m sorry.”

Her downcast eyes did little to mask the return of that almost eerie and inhuman look from earlier, causing both skeleton monsters to pause and stare at her. Sans’ hands trembled a little as he finally freed her from the coat, little spots of red staining the garment where it’d touched the cuts.

June sighed and stepped away from them, heading back into the other room. She knew what this looked like; what her words sounded like. She knew she was broken, damaged in places no one could see and very little could heal. But as she had already told them, damaged as she was, she didn’t know any other way to be. And it was difficult for her to admit there were any chinks in her armor or cracks in the mask she wore for the world. Oh, she was well aware they were there. But she knew better than to acknowledge them. If she did, that meant she had to deal with them, she had to fix them, making them bigger and more painful than they already were before letting them heal in any way. And with all her energy focused on two things, she left no real room for herself, and she was used to that. As long as she had something else to worry about, she could push aside her own problems and pain. And while it meant her own problems never really went away, she had ways of coping. Even if they weren’t good ones.

It wasn’t until Sans took the roll of bandages out of her hands and guided her to sit down at the table that June realized she’d spaced out again in her own thoughts. Her body had moved on auto-piolet, getting into her bag and pulling out the emergency medical supplies she’d packed in case either girl needed to be patched up for any reason. She sighed again, letting the smaller skeleton work on bandaging her hands for her.

“Thanks. Normally I’d just use my powers to heal something small like this, but I just don’t have the energy right now,” she frowned. Sans glanced up at her, then over at Gaster.

"Yjcv fq aqw ogcp, fgct iktn?"

“I…ugh, can I just explain this one another time? I mean, I’m not trying to be ungrateful, I just…the day’s finally catching up to me and I’d like to try to get some sleep. And you guys should, too. I’m sure you guys are exhausted, and all I’ve done is keep you up.”

“not true. you made sure we had something to eat when we got back, and you cleaned up for us, and took care of papyrus. you’ve done a lot for us. besides, i’m not going to bed until i finish up with your hands.”

June sighed, looking away. She still felt like shit, but Sans’ words did cheer her up a little, her tense and haggard expression finally softening some. She muttered another thanks his way while he waved Gaster on to bed. The taller skeleton seemed hesitant, but finally complied with a yawn and a wave to them. June lifted one bandaged hand in return, Sans still focused on her other one. There was a long pause as he finished up with her hand and returned the leftover roll of bandages to her. She mumbled another thanks, moving to get up and put them away, but he caught her wrist as she passed. She glanced down at him in surprise.

“i…i know it’s not really my place to say anything, but…don’t beat yourself up over tonight. you had every right to snap at us. you barely know us, and we’re asking a lot of personal stuff, stuff you clearly aren’t ready to share. that’s fine. don’t feel obligated to tell us anything. in fact, if it’s something you don’t want to talk about, just say so, or shake your head, or give us some sign to get the hell off that topic. we’ll understand. and don’t worry about the plate. neither one of us is really that _broken up_ about it,” he added with a wink, clearly trying to lighten her mood. It worked, a small huff of amusement slipping past her smirking lips.

“Thanks. I feel like I’m gonna end up saying that a lot. But really, thanks.”

“think nothing of it. we kind of owe you anyway for…well, a lot, actually. but never mind that. i’m pretty beat. lots of…science-y stuff to do tomorrow.”

Another soft laugh escaped her as he turned her words from earlier back on her, but this time, it was her turn to surprise him by latching onto his wrist.

“Hey, uh…tomorrow, if you’ve got the time, remind me that I promised I’d explain about my powers. To both of you.”

He gave her a quizzical look, but agreed before heading to bed. June sat there at the table for a bit, thinking over everything and finally sighed, rubbing her hands over her face. She’d just made things a lot more complicated for herself. But she owed them the explanation, at least…right?

\----------------------------------

The time went by pretty quickly after that. Mornings and days were spent playing with the kids out in the snow.

Snowmen and snow forts built and demolished in the wake of the kids roughhousing. Snowball fights with the two little ones against June, June letting them win most of the time. Games of tag and hide-and-seek ending with all three of them panting and laughing on the ground. Lots of warm baths, warm drinks, and home-cooked meals. Almost every moment had both girls smiling and enjoying themselves.

The evenings, though, were reserved for late night conversations with Sans and Gaster after work.

Long talks and explanations about a variety of topics, usually starting off with how the day had been with Papyrus and their progress with the machine. June explained her powers to them as best she could, even giving them demonstrations when they asked. Human customs, history, biology, societies, religions, politics…all topics brought up, deemed safe enough for her to talk about without delving much into personal things. When the conversation did stray towards personal topics, June would pause and take a moment to decide if she wanted to talk about it or not. Sometimes she did; most of the time, she didn’t. But through it all, the skeletons were understanding and supportive, never once pressuring her to speak if she didn’t want to. They, in turn, talked about the monster equivalent to anything she discussed, and if it was something personal to her, they offered her something personal as well.

All in all, it turned out to be a great few days. And when Sans burst through the door with that excited look on his face, well…she couldn’t say she was overly enthusiastic about leaving yet. It would suck to have to say goodbye, but she could do it. After all, in a way, she was doing it for them now as much as she was for May. For the first time since she was young, she cared about something – someone – besides her little sister. And she was going to protect that with every fiber of her being, her own feelings be damned. Thinking of that, of protecting them, stopping Error from ever getting the chance to harm anyone in her newly expanding circle of people she cared about… **it filled her with DETERMINATION.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Gaster Translations:** "This is quite good, June, thank you. But it does not answer the question."  
>  "Can’t, or won’t?"  
>  "So you are using your nights to avoid something else. What, if you do not mind my prying?"  
>  "I beg your pardon?"  
>  "Because you would be…six feet under? You would be dead if not for your sister? Why? How can a child hold life and death in her hands like that?"  
>  "So the red liquid leaking from you is a good thing, then."  
>  "She cut her hands on the pieces of the plate that broke and now she is bleeding!"  
>  "My, that was quite the scare. I think we all have had enough excitement for one night. Back to bed, children."  
>  "What do you mean, dear girl?"
> 
> Whew, that's a lot of Gaster speech...anyway, I hope you guys liked this one, and see you next time for more! -S


	3. May and the Fell Boys: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Essentially what happens during the time that June is unconscious. There is mischief and shenanigans abound! Hope y'all enjoy this little excursion into Fell. -BW

May watched over her sister for the first few hours after the incident, not sure how to react to this. They’d been having such a great time. Well, she knew she had been, and June had seemed to be too. The brothers may have been a bit annoyed at them, but that was probably because they were nervous, what with not having powers and all.

Thinking about the monsters’ lack of magic only made May feel guiltier, as that’s how June was in this situation in the first place. And it was all her fault. If she had just kept quiet about those strings…if she hadn’t tried to get him to attack her – and really, what had she been thinking then? May let her head fall into her hands, staying like that until she heard the door to the room creak open.

\-------

Sans stood outside the door, reluctant to go inside and disturb the occupants, almost as if he was invading some private moment. But he was being ridiculous, it was still his brother’s room; there were just two girls in it now. Two human girls who they had caught dancing and singing in the forest, who had evidently come from another universe, for fuck’s sake! And they said that they knew them already, other thems; that was plenty weird for him. And then they had to go and have magic, just when every monster here had none. But the smaller one, May, had somehow changed that, had given him back his own magic. And he wanted to know how, but first, he had to stop standing in front of this door like an idiot and just go in. He still opened the door as quietly as he could, leaning in before speaking softly.

“how are you doing? you should probably eat somethin’. won’t do you much good if you wear yourself out, kiddo.”

“’m okay…’m not hungry…thanks, though,” May muttered, staring at June’s exposed back, unable to tear her eyes away from the wound.

He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t have much experience with girls, let alone humans. Well, he mused to himself, he did have some knowledge of humans, but they were nothing like these girls. Sans ended up deciding to give the young girl another hour to process, and then try and bug her again. But before he left, he Checked May, just to see how bad she was, and his Soul nearly fell through his ribcage; her Soul was so dim, dimmer even then his own, which was saying something. There was also another thing; something was missing, it felt like, almost like part of her Soul was hidden. Though what the hell that was eluded and frustrated him, so he just gave up on it. He walked out and down the stairs, going to sit on the couch as he had offered to watch the humans while Papyrus was off scouting and whatever other shit he did as Captain of the Royal Guard.

\-------

Sans was jerked awake by a loud noise, then relaxed when he realized it was just the show on the TV. He glanced at the time and frowned. He’d slept for little over an hour. Whelp, time to go and possibly drag the human to the kitchen for food. He found himself once again at his brother’s door, glaring at it like it would help him solve his problems. Sans reached for the doorknob but stopped when he heard a sniffle and quiet mutterings from the room. Groaning internally, he hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with an emotional human. He knew about emotions even less than he did humans. This time, rather than just lingering by the door, he walked up to stand behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, startling her out of wherever she had gone to in her head.

“come on, kiddo, you need to eat and move. don’t make me ask twice”

“I told you, I’m fine. Just leave me-ahh!” May squeaked out when Sans suddenly decided to hoist her up and plop her on his shoulder, carrying her out of the room and down to the kitchen while she struggled to get out of the skeleton’s surprisingly strong grip. Sans set her down in a chair at the small table they had, then turned to glare at her.

“now, either you have whatever boss has stored in the fridge, or you wait while i cook ya something. what’ll it be?”

There was a pause before May replied, “You say that like Papyrus doesn’t cook well.”

Sans felt his grin widen as he reached for the fridge’s door handle and pulled it open. May leaned forward to get a better look at all the spaghetti inside, then sat up straight and looked at him in confusion/dismay, “Is that… _glitter?”_

Sans gave a chuckle, shaking his head at her. “nope, it’s iron shavings.”

“Wha-?! _Why?”_ May exclaimed, recoiling away from the pasta mess in shock and horror, though still staying seated.

“he thinks it’ll help toughen me up. honestly, it just gets stuck between my teeth. do you know how hard it is to get that stuff outta your teeth? it sucks.”

“Um, I wouldn’t know, because eating iron shavings would probably kill a human. Most likely kill a human. Almost definitely kill a human. Translation, that stuff’s not edible. That’s not food.”

“heh, i figured as much. though you try tellin’ him that.”

“Shouldn’t you be the one telling him? You’re his brother, after all.”

“do you even know what he would do to me if i tried? he’d kill me, or at least severely injure me, and he’d probably _still_ expect me to do my jobs…”

May looked surprised, which Sans couldn’t think of why she would be. Though she was from another world, maybe there things were different. But he noticed something. When he’d said that, her slightly dim Soul gave a gentle glow, but just as quickly it started to disappear. He wondered what it meant. Then he got an idea.

“yeah, here, we don’t really care for others. it’s kill or be killed, and those that are weak don’t make it long.”

“…why would you guys do that to each other? And what do you mean by weak?”

“i couldn’t explain that one to ya. it’s just the way we’ve always been, i guess. and weak is like when you show emotions, or when you won’t fight back when challenged.”

“No it’s not,” she interjected with a frown. “It’s not weak to show feelings, or to retreat if you have to.”

Sans just kinda stared at her, and at times through her, to her Soul. Watching it as the glow got a little bit brighter again. It was so close to just igniting on its own, but it needed a little more push, which he was more than happy to deliver.

“it really is, and you and your sister are some of the weakest i’ve seen in a while. especially june. she was stupid enough to try and take a blast for ya, even if she didn’t know about your powers coming in-”

_“Hey!”_ she cried fiercely, jumping out of her chair angrily. “Don’t you _dare_ talk about my sister like that! She’s not weak! I may not be very strong, but June is the toughest, strongest, coolest, most badass person I know, and I bet she could beat you and everyone else in the Underground if she wanted to! So you know what, mister doom-and-gloom, grumpy meanie pants? _I don’t wanna hear another bad word about my sister from you!_ And if I catch you or anyone else saying _anything_ about my sister, I’ll…I’ll…I don’t know what I’ll do, but I’ll make you _regret it!”_

By the end of her rant she was standing tall, hands on the table, her Soul practically blinding to look at. Sans felt like he’d done a good thing, which was weird for him. It was a kinda soft feeling in his Soul, like something he’d felt long ago, when Paps was still small and needed to be looked after. Sans smirked at the little girl, who seemed to be cooling down a bit now.

“Well?” she spat, her inner fire still burning bright, despite her cooling temper. “Have anything to say for yourself?”

“yeah, i do. are ya feeling better?”

He watched as the confused look on the girl’s face turned to understanding, a smile forming on her face, directed at him. Then, to his surprise, she walked over to him and gave him a hug of all things, as well as a ‘thank you’ muffled by his hoodie. They stood there for a bit, her not letting go and him not knowing what to do…that is, until her stomach decided to speak up and ruin the moment.

“Ah, maybe I should, uh, eat,” she giggled. “And I’ll definitely try your cooking over Papyrus’s. After all, it’s a safe assumption _you_ don’t put potentially dangerous substances in your food.”

Sans walked over to the cabinets and started to pull out some stuff for food, though still keeping up with their conversation.

“smart choice, kiddo, and you won’t regret it. i make some of the best burgs in hotland. nothin’ like grillby’s, but still good.”

Just as Sans was done with cooking, and after making May laugh at another one of his hilarious puns, Papyrus returned home. May turned her attention to the taller skeleton, her face lighting up as she suddenly darted out of the room.

“BROTHER! WHAT IS –”

“Papyrus!”

There was a tell-tale pause from the other room – Sans snickered once he realized she had probably startled the taller skeleton, and possibly tackle-hugged him – before they both entered his view. Now Sans really had to hold back his laughter at seeing that she was actually clinging to his bro’s leg, and to make it better, Papyrus just took it and waddled into the kitchen. After prying her off, he finally spoke up.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT, TINY HUMAN?”

“Well, as soon as we’re done eating, you, me, and Sans are all gonna go out and start restoring people’s magic!” she declared. Both the brothers looked at the girl like she was crazy while she happily dug into the meal, ignoring them for the moment. Shaking himself out of his daze, Sans went and sat in the seat across from her, waiting for her to look at him before asking, “uh, when were you gonna let us know ‘bout this plan of yours?”

“Um, I’m not sure, actually. I kind of only remembered about the problem itself a little bit ago. This is great, by the way,” she added, grinning to Sans before turning back to her topic. “Anyway, I was thinking. Something I did gave Sans his magic back, right? Well, whatever that was, we need to do again. For everyone! But we’ll need to tweak the, um…approach a little. I can’t just run up to everyone and tell them to attack me. I mean, they probably would, but that’s not the point. I need someone there to help me find my way around the Underground, and I need someone who can get the others to fight them without it being suspicious. That’s where you guys come in!”

“WHY SHOULD WE HELP YOU?”

“’Cause you guys need your magic back, and I’m the only one who can do that. Well, one of you does, anyway. Look, I wouldn’t ask if I thought I could do this by myself. I know I’m not strong enough to go out there alone, and without June…”

She sighed, her eyes falling to the table. Sans’s Soul gave an uncomfortable lurch to see that almost blinding inner fire of hers dimmed dramatically because of thoughts of her sister.

“I need her right now. I kind of hate it, but I do. And normally, it wouldn’t bother me that I need my sister – she’s my sister, she means the world to me. We’re really close, closer than a lot of other siblings are, but…this whole thing is my fault. It’s my fault we got warped to an alternate reality, it’s my fault we were put in danger, it’s my fault she got hurt, and it’s my fault she might not wake up. And I can’t do anything about it but sit and wait to see if she’s gonna be okay!” she sobbed, her whole body tense from trying not to completely break down. The fire in her Soul didn’t go out again, not yet, but it was dangerously close to doing so.

“And-and even though what Error did while he was here isn’t my fault, there is something I can do about it, and right now, that’s all I have! But I s-still need my sister, and she can’t h-help me, and it’s my f-fault! But I can’t-can’t just s-sit around and-and do nothing! I just can’t! June…June wouldn’t want me to worry or mope around, not on her behalf. She’d want me to be out doing stuff, getting my mind off it, playing and laughing and having fun like a kid should. And even though I am gonna worry – because I’m her little sister, it’s my job – I-I need to be out doing something. I need to…not be in a funk, because that’s not what she’d want. Sans reminded me of that. And really, if she wakes up… _when_ she wakes up, the last thing she needs is to worry about me. So I’m gonna go out and do some good in this world, my own feelings be darned!”

There it was again. Not as bright as before, but her fire, her passion…it was still there. After how hard he’d worked to rekindle it, he would hope it was still intact, tears and… _emotions_ … or no.

“I can’t make you guys help me. Heck, I can’t even make you guys give a darn about one word I’ve said. But whether you help me or not, I’m going out there, and I’m fixing Error’s mess. It’s the only thing I can think to do right now. So…I’ll say it one more time. I do need you guys. And it would mean a lot if you’d help me.”

She fixed them both with a pitiful, watery, puppy-eyed look. Sans rolled his eyes in response, as if she needed to talk them into helping. He already felt indebted to her, as much as that thought pissed him off. He didn’t like having to owe anyone anything, but it didn’t feel that bad knowing he owed her. If he could repay her by doing this, what was stopping him?

Then said person that would try to stop him decided to speak up.

“HEH, YOU ARE CORRECT, IN THAT ONLY YOU CAN RESTORE THE MAGIC WE MONSTERS SEEM TO HAV E LOST, AND THAT YOU SHOULD NOT MOPE AROUND. MOPING HELPS NO ONE AND LEAST OF ALL YOURSELF. AND IF IT TAKES HELPING OTHERS TO FIX YOU, THEN SO BE IT!!”

Watching his brother strike a menacing pose, Sans had to admit…he was actually pretty shocked by this. He didn’t think Papyrus would want to get involved with helping others when he wouldn’t get much out of it, especially as they would have to essentially protect the kid most of the time. Though, thinking on it, his brother did always seem to have a bit of a soft spot for children, probably because he would act like one much of the time. Sans could feel an almost genuine smile spread out on his face, thinking that this could actually turn out good for once.

After a quick check in with her sister, and somehow managing to convince Papyrus to stay behind and watch over the unconscious June, Sans and May head out to look for monsters. Sans thought the best place to start would be Grillby’s pub; he was enough of a friend that the bartender would step in if things got too out of hand. But just a few steps from the house and May was already shivering. Sans sighed internally, debating giving her his hoodie. Then a thought occurred to him: if he gave her something of his, it would look like a claim, and other monsters would definitely stay away from her. He’d handle any backlash and she’d be unharmed thanks to his reputation.

“here, short-stuff, take my hoodie. you’re shaking so hard it’s making my bones rattle.” He winked for added effect, hoping she’d take the offer. She giggled lightly and seemed to think it over for a moment, getting colder by the second as they’d stopped walking before finally looking up at him and asking him, “But won’t you get cold?”

“nah, i won’t even feel it. ‘cause, ya know, just skin and bones here. sans the skin.”

It managed to make her laugh, and she took the jacket when he handed it over. He felt a little bit easier as they continued the walk. Sans watched out of the corner of his eye socket as May would suddenly snuggle deeper into the warm and fuzzy hoodie lining, every time he caught her he’d feel his expression soften. That is until Grillby’s came into view and he put his cocky smirk back on, opening the door for the small human and then leading her up to the bar. He could feel everyone’s eyes on them as he helped May up onto the stool, then fixed Grillby with a quick glare before gesturing to his charge, trying to have her do the talking, since only she seemed to know what to do.

“Hi!” she chirped, cheerful as ever. “So, um…I don’t know how confusing this’ll be, but I’m gonna try and explain this. Um. I’m here to help everyone get their magic back!”

Grillby appeared a little shocked, nearly dropping the glass he was cleaning, but gave a nod for her to continue. Sans hoped that this wouldn’t blow up in his face.

“Okay, so, I tried this out earlier with Sans, and…I’m not really sure how it works, but, um…so I got curious about what happens when you guys use your magic if it was taken away, right? So I had Sans show me, and I saw…something. I can’t really…I don’t…” She trailed off, looking distant and lost. It took Sans snapping his fingers in front of her face for her to come back to reality, giving them both a sheepish look.

“Sorry. What was I talking about? Right, the magic thing. So, I had Sans attack me – or try to, anyway – and I saw this…something. If I try to describe it…” She gestured idly with one hand, the sleeve of his too big jacket flopping as she moved. She shook her head before continuing with a frown.

“Anyway, I realized I could only see it if he was trying to use his magic, so I told him to keep attacking me until I could clearly make out what it was I was seeing. And then I just…uh…I don’t know what I did, actually. I wanted to get rid of it, and when I waved my hand at it, it was gone. Does that make any sense?”

Grillby rubbed his chin for a moment before replying, “So what you’re saying is that you want me to attack you…with magic I don’t have?”

“Uh, pretty much, yeah. I know, sounds kinda crazy. Going around asking to be attacked? But, well…it’s the only way I’ve figured out so far that works, so…” she trailed off with a nervous little laugh. Sans propped his head on his hand as he watched May fidget, then decided to stop her before she got too far into her nervous ramble.

“hey, kiddo, calm down, alright? i’m hopin’ he doesn’t have to attack ya. just usin’ magic should be enough.”

May took a few deep breaths, and they both turned to Grillby, who was giving Sans a look that was probably a demand for an explanation as to why the human was wearing his hoodie that he never takes off for anything. ‘That’ll be fun to explain to him later…’ he thought to himself.

“just humor the human, grillbz. if it doesn’t work then we can take this outside. but nothing strong.” Sans felt his eyes dim unconsciously in warning, but he just didn’t want the one monster he thought of as a friend get dusted by the human’s older sibling. Hopefully he didn’t seem too possessive of said tiny human. That was another thing he hoped June never found out about.

Grillby looked between the two sitting in front of him before seeming to sigh and then conjured a simple fireball in his hand, looking at May expectantly. Sans watched her too, looking for that face she gave him before, but he didn’t see it.

“I don’t see anything,” she said slowly, sighing in disappointment.

“guess we need to go outside. don’t need the place going up in flames, eh grillbz?”

Grillby’s flames sputtered a bit at the joke, and Sans felt his smirk grow mischievous remembering all the times he’d been thrown out because of them. Grillby then set down his rag and started to head for the front door, leaving the two to follow. Chatter around the pub turned silent as they all walked past. Sans could feel their eyes on him again, and it really set him on edge, especially as they would probably follow them out, too.

Once outside, Sans stood beside the door, just to make sure that no one who decided to come out could cause any problems. Grillby and May walked into the middle of the street, which was essentially the less snowy space between the pub and forest. As the two combatants turned to each other, the first “brave” souls stepped out of the building; it was some of the guard dogs, Dogamy and Dogaressa. They noticed him and cringed when he snapped his head towards them, watching them take up spots on the other side of the door. Others came out soon after, just as the battle was beginning.

Grillby took an offensive stance, a smile forming onto his face, excited to be able to fight. He held his hands at his sides with small sparks shooting from them. May almost looked calm, but he could see her nervousness about battling one of the few monsters to have survived the war and imprisonment. Sans chuckled to himself when he heard the crowd suddenly gasp as May’s Soul was pulled out. No one had seen a green Soul underground in decades, as most of them hadn’t survived long. Whether from the war or just other monsters seeing them as weak, it was a rare sight to behold. Though it didn’t deter Grillby, who just threw his hands forward, as if to throw flame attacks at the human, but as expected, nothing happened.

Then Sans saw it.

May got a faraway look on her face and she stepped closer to the flame monster, probably confusing everyone watching. She kept walking closer until she was just within reach, and with that look still in her eye, she gestured for Grillby to crouch lower. Sans expected him to resist or something, but he must’ve seen the strange look in her eyes to know something was working. To the amazement of the onlookers, he got down, making them of similar height. Once she could reach over him, she did her hand-waving shit as Grillby was trying another attack and for a split second Sans thought he saw something above Grillby, tied around his Soul. But it was gone so quickly that he just brushed it off and came back to reality in time to see huge jets of fire whoosh by May, who was thankfully standing between the arms of the elemental. The other monsters started to buzz, but Sans didn’t hear most of it as he walked over to Grillby and May, laying a hand on her shoulder in a silent congratulations, her flashing him a beaming smile.

Grillby, on the hand, was looking at his hands as he clenched them and the flames grew in size. He then looked over to the pub and the monsters outside it before he smiled one of the most devious smiles Sans had ever seen in the bartender. The dog guards were the first to notice the heated look (heh, gonna have to remember that one later) sent their way and made a dash for inside, leaving everyone else to cower against the wall. Just as he was about to walk over, May did something extremely stupid, something Sans was afraid would be the last thing she’d ever do; she ran over and grabbed his sleeve before practically shouting at him, “Grillby, _no!”_

She yanked backwards and down, almost toppling him over, but he regained his balance enough to glare down at the small thing nearly dangling off his arm. Said small thing leveled such a glare at him that Sans could swear Grillby’s flames shrunk down some. Then she opened her mouth again.

“Don’t be a jerk, Grillby! I didn’t give you back your magic so you could hurt others! That’s mean and selfish and stupid, and I won’t let you! And-and if you’re gonna keep this up, then…then I’ll find a way to take your magic away again! And don’t think I won’t just ‘cause I gave it back in the first place! So stop it! Stop being mean, right now!”

Grillby froze, the remaining monsters froze, and Sans could feel the tension thick in the air. Everyone had eyes on May and Grillby. Sans hoped that his friend would be smart and not do something equally as stupid in retaliation. But of course, he couldn’t let her get away with scolding him in front of his customers, especially as he was much stronger than her. Seeing his other arm move, Sans teleported in between them, shoving May and her still exposed Soul aside with his magic while grabbing Grillby’s arm and holding it. The two stared each other down, no one making any sound or movement, anxious of releasing the pent up energies of the only two beings to have any magic. Sans made the first move, talking in a quiet voice so no one but Grillby could hear.

“hey now, bud. let’s not do anythin’ stupid. use that fucking head of yours and _think._ this human has a sister, one that’s got magic i’ve only ever heard of in stories, and some i’ve not. she’s really strong – able to survive one of my blasters – and not even _you_ could stand a chance against her. so let. it. go. if you’ve got beef, take it out on me. seein’ as i have a claim over her, you wouldn’t lose face and you wouldn’t be dusted. so whaddya say, pal?”

Grillby held eye contact for a few moments before making a move, yanking his arm away before bringing it back to punch Sans right in the gut, knocking unneeded air from nonexistent lungs. Barely getting time to recover, he found himself being lifted up by his neck, which was starting to grow uncomfortably warm. He braced himself for the inevitable flames, which were hot enough for him to lose a few health points and probably singed his sweater and collar some, but it was worth it. Once Sans was sure he had a nice charred look to his neck bones, Grillby dropped him. Sans was thankful for being let go when he was, as he wasn’t sure how much longer May would’ve held herself back.

Sans had heard the human gasp as soon as the “punishment” had started, and was somewhat glad that she had stayed out of it as long as she did, but he doubted with her Soul being what it was that she would’ve stood off to the side much longer. He looked up at the flame elemental, each giving the other a quick nod before the fire monster stalked off, leaving the skeleton and human in the middle of the street. He nearly flinched when he heard May come closer, probably to use her magic on him. But he’d be damned if he was made to owe her any more than he already did.

“that went about as well as i expected, heh. you okay, kiddo?”

“I…oh god…” May whispered, dropping to her knees next to him and gently taking his hand. “A-are you okay? Wha-what do I need to do? How can I help? Please tell me there’s something I can do to make this better…”

This made Sans confused. Why didn’t she just use her magic? Wasn’t that what green souls did, shield AND heal? He made to turn his head and address her, but let out a pained gasp, making May even more frantic. He slowly stood up, certainly not taking May’s offered hand for support, and motioned for her to follow him.

“come on, short-stuff. let’s get outta here. i know a shortcut.”


	4. May and the Fell Boys: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow even more shenanigans are had, and I expand on a twist that had me and Singing_Dream in stitches laughing over it. Good times are had and May meets some others monsters.

When she hesitated too long, Sans grabbed her hand and made a show of standing up straight, not wanting to come off as weak to anyone who might be watching them. He turned farther into town, knowing a good place to get them right into his house. May made a confused noise, which just made it all the more worth it when he used his magic to pinpoint the hole in space and connect to the other side of it. Which should’ve been the living room, but he must have taken a bit more damaged than he thought, as he ended up falling halfway into the kitchen on his back. He heard two startled noises, one coming from the room he was now laying in and one from the living room. Sans was suddenly lifted up into the air by his foot, coming face-to-face with an upside-down version of his brother. Papyrus marched into the other room and the brothers found the small girl sprawled out on the couch. He was mildly jealous that she got a soft landing.

“What was that? Oh my gosh, are you okay? Papyrus put him down! _Gently._ ” May told the tall skeleton, which Sans was internally grateful of, as otherwise he would have probably just dropped him. When he had righted himself, Papyrus grabbed his shoulders and stared at him hard. Then Sans remembered his injuries, the reason he’d wanted to come home (why had he wanted to do such a stupid thing?).

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO GRILLBY THIS TIME?”

Was it really that obvious who had hurt him? Well, given previous experiences, yeah, it was. He gave a nervous chuckle, about to reply when Papyrus saw what he hoped he wouldn’t have noticed: the human wearing his jacket. His brother got an odd look in his eye sockets, it was curious and angry and shocked and a few others that he couldn’t place.

“SANS, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! HOW COULD YOU _BE_ SO STUPID!! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO _PROTECT_ THE TINY HUMAN, NOT _CLAIM_ HER!! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! AND TAKING HER BACK TO GRILLBY’S, NO LESS!! NO WONDER HE ATTACKED YOU!! I HIGHLY DOUBT ANYONE WOULD APPROVE OF A CLAIM ON A BEING SO YOUNG AND SMALL AND WEAK!!! ER, NO OFFENSE, SMALL ONE.”

“None taken. But –”

“AND HERE WE ARE _AGAIN_ WHERE YOU HAVE DONE SOMETHING STUPID AND COME CRAWLING HOME EXPECTING HELP FROM YOURS TRULY! YOU’RE PROBABLY EXPECTING ME TO HEAL YOU, BUT I WILL NOT!! INSTEAD, I WILL ONLY OFFER MY ADVICE. YOU CLEARLY NEED HELP WITH THIS…CLAIM YOU HAVE OVER THE SMALL ONE. THE FIRST STEP TO A SUCCESSFUL CLAIM IS TO PROVIDE THEM WITH A DECENT MEAL!!” Suddenly, Papyrus stopped, gasped, then looked unnecessarily smug. “WAIT JUST A MOMENT.”

“bro, it’s not like that-“

“Could someone explain what’s going on to the confused human?”

He and Papyrus both turned to stare at May, coming back for a moment from arguing before Papyrus hit him, hard, on the back of his head and said, “SHE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW YOU ARE CLAIMING HER?! WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT?”

Sans had tried to keep his cool up until that point, but he wouldn’t take this accusation from his brother. Before he knew it, he was jabbing his finger at Papyrus’ chest plate and ranting.

“i wasn’t trying to claim her! i just wanted to give her a little extra protection by making it seem like it. and i was hopin’ she wouldn’t find out ‘cause if her sister found out i’d probably be dusted! i got injured in the first place to keep her from getting hurt. grillby was gonna make a fucking _example_ of her - after she’d given him back his magic, mind you - if i didn’t take her place by admitting my false claim on her to him. i’ve been doing my job pretty damn well, thank you, and would appreciate it if you backed the hell off!”

Sans huffed and went to sit on the couch, exhausted by his little outburst. He saw that Papyrus hadn’t moved at all since he started going off on him, and only seemed to come to when he’d moved. His brother just gave him a look, glanced from Sans to May, and then headed back to the kitchen. He briefly wondered if he’d bring him some food, but then realized that he was left to explain all this on his own. Great.

He turned to May, who looked perplexed about what had just transpired.

“You have no idea how lost I am right now.”

Sans started to curl up into his hoodie to hide from her confused and curious expression…only to remember that she was still wearing it. He threw his head back and groaned, regretting just how deep a hole he’d dug himself into. Welp, time to get this over with…

“do you know what it is to… claim someone?”

She fixed him with a very blank look, then scrunched up her nose as she seemed to think about it. Oh stars, please don’t start randomly guessing…

“Um…claiming them like possessing them? Like you’d possess an item?”

Oh, dear Asgore, was it this bad when he told Papyrus? Then it clicked why Papyrus had left. He knew somehow. That sneak! Sans cleared his nonexistent throat, feeling his face glow a bit as he settled in.

“well, when one monster loves another monster very much, they give-“

He didn’t even get to finish the first sentence before May had a sudden and violent reaction, as well as changed colors, becoming very red.

“ _Okay that’s enough, thank you! I know where this is going and I really,_ really _want no part of it! You can stop now!_ Please stop. Seriously. I had the birds and bees talk with June once already. I really don’t need the monster version.”

She had curled up in his hoodie, hiding behind her hands in clear embarrassment, but was peeking at him warily through her fingers. Had that been his imagination, or had her voice jumped up even higher in pitch than before? And what the hell had she meant by “the birds and bees talk”?

“birds and bees? what are those? and what’s it got to do with _this?_ ”

May uncurled a bit, putting her hands down. Well, she was at least a little less red.

“Um, so birds are this type of flying animal on the surface. They’ve got feathers and wings and a beak and these funny legs…well, actually, there are lots of different kinds of birds. But that’s getting off topic. And bees are a type of bug on the surface. They’re yellow and black and fuzzy, and they fly too, but not as high as birds, and they make honey and live in hives. But there are different kinds of bees, too. That happens a lot on the surface. Anyway, I honestly have no idea where humans got the idea to reference a bug and a flying animal for something like…this.”

And she was back to being red, sinking deeper into his hoodie. She was hiding so hard now, her voice was muffled, and he could barely hear her.

“So, um, the whole…birds-and-bees thing…it’s also called, um…’the talk’. O-or, um, the…the sex talk.”

Ah. Sans knew about that. It all made sense now. He could feel his cheekbones glow a deeper red, but at least it was out of the way. Sorta. He sighed and continued.

“heh, i getcha now, kiddo. so, now that we’re on the same page, and you have an idea as to why i tried to claim you, you got any more questions?”

“…Wait, you were… _what?! Why?_ ”

She scooched back as far from him as she could on the couch, making him confused. Guess they weren’t on the same page after all.

“what? hold on, let me just tell you what claiming is, ‘cause i don’t think that it’s what you’re thinkin’.”

May sat huddled in her cocoon, thinking for a moment before giving a quick nod. He took a deep breath before he started up the explanation.

“so, claiming is just the act of saying you want to be with someone. you normally start off by giving them food you made, often a few times and if you both agree, then you exchange some notable item, like clothes.”

May visibly relaxed, which put Sans at ease, though he didn’t quite get why she was so tense. Though he had an idea, which made him smirk just the tiniest bit as he could get her back for making him talk about this again.

“what you were thinking of was mating, which is a few steps ahead of claiming. didn’t know you were so eager to jump my bones.” He then made as exaggerated a wink as he could muster, the results of which were highly amusing. May started to stammer and babble at the insinuation. Then after a few moments composed herself enough to mutter “you jerk” before she went to punch his arm, making him involuntary flinch, which then triggered a bigger flinch when he moved his neck, which he reached for to try and sooth. (Though how he didn’t know.) May’s playful expression dissolved into a worried one when she remembered their whole reason for coming back.

“Oh my gosh, your injuries! I totally forgot! Um…oh! I’ll go get you something to eat.” And before he could protest, she was off toward the kitchen. He watched her as she turned into the room and decided it would be best to follow; Papyrus might try to have her eat some of his spaghetti, which would be bad. Not trusting his teleporting power, he pushed himself up, wincing a bit, and went to sit at the table. He watched her startle Papyrus, who was in the middle of sprinkling more metal crap onto his spaghetti. She quickly took over the cooking situation upon seeing this.

“Uh, Papyrus? Could you put that away, please, so I can make some food?” May asked politely. Sans thought for a moment that his bro would refuse to cooperate, but he was just full of surprises today, as he put it into the fridge with the rest and sat on the other side of the table, then gave Sans a suspiciously knowing smirk.

May gave an approving nod and got to work, only asking if the boys had butter, cheese, and noodles other than spaghetti (they didn’t, but she seemed to not mind too much) and where items were before getting to work. She first started filling up the smallest pot they had (which was almost too big for her to lift) with water and while it heated up she broke the spaghetti noodles into smaller pieces. It was only when Sans turned to see his brother intensely watching May, probably wondering why she would change the length of the pasta, that he realized what this looked like: her reciprocating the claim! While she was distracted with keeping the food from burning, he got his bros attention and whispered to him.

“bro, don’t tell anyone else about this, ‘kay? i’m handlin’ it, just… it’s all a bit complicated and-“

Papyrus cut him off by holding up his hand, waited a moment and replied with a simple nod before turning back to May as she poured the noodles into the boiling water. Sans felt another warming in his chest, just like earlier with making May feel better. But he enjoyed it even more because it was caused by his bro showing a side of himself he hadn’t in years. He felt a genuine smile form on his face as he also turned back to the small girl.

They all just waited and watched as May moved over to the counter and started chopping up some of their cheese block. Watching her go back and forth from stirring to cutting, along with just watching someone do so much work, was lulling Sans. He was jolted awake by a fairly distraught sounding Papyrus.

“WHY WOULD YOU PUT CHEES E INTO SPAGHETTI? YOU HAVE RUINED SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DISH!”

“Because I'm not making spaghetti. I’m making mac and cheese.”

“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? AND WHAT IS THIS MAC AND CHEESE?”

“Mac and cheese is another pasta dish. And, um…I don’t know how to make anything else. That’s why.”

Papyrus got a curious look on his face, probably eager to learn a new dish. Sans just felt apprehensive, just hoping that she’s a better cook than Papyrus. Once the noodles were to a texture she deemed acceptable, she carefully poured out the boiling water and, for some reason, put the cheese and butter in, humming to herself all the while. Sans lifted himself a bit to watch the cheese go all melty and sticky. Papyrus was now fully standing to get the best view, watching her carefully so he could try and recreate it later on, or tell Undyne about it. More than likely both, at the same time.

May let out a happy noise, indicating the food was done, and climbed onto the counter to get out some plates. Setting them out on the table in front of the brothers, she brought over the pot and started dividing the portions. When there was nothing left, she happily trotted over to the sink and stared up at it, seeming to debate climbing it to wash out the leftover food. Sans looked at the mass of cheesy noodles in front of him and wondered if it would have the same effect as food cooked by a monster. He glanced at his brother, and seeing that he wasn’t likely to touch the food until someone else did, and with May still debating behind him, he took the plunge and stuck a forkful in his mouth.

Well, he thought, it was exactly like food cooked by a monster, but a thousand times stronger. He actually started choking there was so much happy and cheerful feeling in the dish. He heard the clanking of metal and wood, the others in the room wondering what the hell was going on with him. He actually fell out of his chair the coughing was so violent. Sans could sense May drop by his side before she reached out for him and moved him onto her lap. He tried to resist, not wanting to be coddled, but she just rubbed his head soothingly while his coughing subsided.

Once calm, Sans looked up and saw May and Papyrus staring at him with worried and trying-not-to-be-but-obviously-anxious expressions, respectively. He gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed his neck out of habit, but to his surprise, it didn’t hurt to touch it. Hell, when he’d moved it earlier he didn’t even flinch, and didn’t he just fall on the floor? He looked up at May and asked, “what did you put _into_ that?”

“Just butter, noodles, and cheese. Well, and a bit of water. I didn’t drain-”

“no, i’m mean, like, emotion-wise. like, what were you feeling when you were makin’ that?”

“I wanted to make you feel better, and then I got sidetracked in how fun cooking is and thinking about all the times June and I would cook together and have fun. And I’m pretty sure I started humming something? Anyway, I guess I was pretty happy, all things considered. Why? I-is that important somehow?”

Sans rolled his head back and groaned out loud. Did this kid know _nothing_ about monsters? From her earlier reaction, he doubted it. But before he could go on another spiel, Papyrus took over.

“BECAUSE OF OUR MAGIC AND THE MAGIC IN OUR FOOD, WHEN MONSTERS COOK, WHAT THEY ARE FEELING AT THE TIME OF THE COOKING IS PUT INTO THE FOOD. SOMETHING TO DO WITH HOW OUR SOULS ARE MADE MOSTLY OF EMOTIONS AND THEY CAN BE EASILY TRANSFERRED INTO THE FOOD, WHETHER WE WANT IT TO OR NOT. YOU MUST HAVE HAD SOME STRONG EMOTIONS FOR IT TO GET SANS ALL CHOKED UP.” He paused for a moment before turning to Sans and adding, “AND NO, SANS, THAT WAS NOT A PUN AND YOU CANNOT USE IT AS SUCH. EVER!”

“aww, c’mon, boss, you know i’d never get worked up over anything, too lazy to try.” Sans felt his smile grow bigger as his bro took the bait and May let out a giggle as the calm in the kitchen descended into the chaos he was more used to. May helped him stand and get back to his chair. He was much more careful to take smaller bites, as these were marginally better to handle than the big clump of noodles he’d tried before. Papyrus took a few experimental bites. He made a face at first, but then, deeming it acceptable, dug right in, making a comment to May on how impressed he was with the emotional power she managed to put into the dish. May gave a timid, but pleased, giggle as she followed after Papyrus, but with much less enthusiasm as she savored the food.

After a bout of quiet, everyone was finished and Papyrus had offered to clean up so that the two of them could get back on May’s mission. Sans and May stood by the door while he thought of someone else he could take her to. He tried to think of the monster that was least threatening, and more likely to listen to her before trying to kill her.

“ah hah. c’mon kiddo, let’s head to your next victim.”

May made a face at his wording and muttered, “They’re not victims. I’m not hurting them or anything…”

He grabbed her hand and headed out the door, turning left away from the main town. He felt her drag behind him a bit, probably watching the town fade into the distance before he called up his magic and focused on another little hole, pulling them through it to appear right beside his post by the Ruins. He gave it a brief look, half remembering that he should be working but pushed it aside and moved in the direction of town. After a couple steps May pulled at his hand a little, and he had to wonder why she was trying to resist. What for, was she getting cold feet? Heh, nice one. But when he looked over his shoulder at her, her expression was worried and tense.

“I’m…I’m not actually hurting anyone, am I?”

Sans turned to her fully and gave her what he hoped was a reassuring face. He placed a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye.

“may, i don’t think you _could_ hurt anyone. that being said, we’re not the best type of monster. hurting each other is a thing we grow up with. but look what you’ve done to me and paps. you’ve shown that we can change, at least a little. you have nothing to worry about other than us hurting you, which your sister will do anything to prevent. so how about we get on with fixin’ people so your sis can kick their asses? err, don’t tell june i said that.”

Then May paused, blinking at him blankly before giving him an innocent smile and adorable tilt of her head, asking, “Tell her you said what?” in the sweetest way she could.

Sans felt his grin get a little wider as he chuckled and ruffled her hair before walking off, leaving her to straighten it up and follow after.

“So who are you taking me to?” May inquired when she got to his side, elbowing him a little. He stuffed his hands into his pockets before replying.

“a dog guard by the name of doggo. he uses blue magic, but at the moment he will probably have his throwing knives on him. and just ‘cause he’s blind doesn’t mean his aim isn’t good, because he can see you when you move. once he gets his magic back, he’ll most likely use it right away. the best thing you can do is dodge until he tires out.”

“Okay then. Easy enough. What does his magic do?”

“he uses a type of blue magic. here, let me give you an example: imagine a stop sign. when you see a stop sign you stop, right? stop signs are red. so imagine a blue stop sign instead. simple, right? when fighting, think of blue stop signs.”

He swore he could feel May’s confusion it was so thick, and looking at her finally made him burst out laughing.

Calming down, Sans stopped walking, letting May continue on her own for a moment before she glanced back at him in befuddlement. He just gave her a cryptic smile, seeing as she had stopped just perfectly in front of a sentry hut. He just jerked his head towards the structure, which she finally noticed was there. It appeared no one was manning it, all that was there were some burnt dog treats and a service bell. Looking back at him and only getting more urgings, she reached out and dinged the bell.

For a moment, nothing happened. May went to reach out for the bell again when a dog appeared, raising up from behind the counter. He looked around suspiciously, before looking at the place May was when she took a step backwards. She looked like she recognized him, just like when the skeleton brothers first found them back in this very forest. She gave a little jump of excitement, which was the worst thing to do near Doggo, as he immediately honed in on her, reaching under the counter for something. Luckily, she decided to throw herself to the side when she saw the dog monster cocking his arm back, barely dodging a blade as it planted itself into the trees behind her.

“Whoa, hey!” she shouted, her dark hair flying as she looked between the blade and the monster who threw it, crouching down close to the snowy path. “Doggo, calm down! It’s me! May! The little human- _Eeep!_ ”

The girl yelped as she rolled to the other side, darting this way and that to dodge a few more knives. Sans stood back and observed the one-sided battle anxiously. Goddamit, May, talking wasn’t going to work here, couldn’t she see that?! After quickly dodging another knife, she finally shut up and concentrated on not being impaled. He watched her face scrunch up into a stubborn expression (one he recognized as a look that Frisk got a lot, and an uneasy feeling hit him as he realized just how little he actually knew about this human and her sister). She was almost as good at dodging as Frisk was, but she still got some nicks and scrapes all over her. Just when Sans felt he might have to step in, Doggo ran out of knives. May took advantage of the ceasefire, staggering to a standstill, going so far as to cover her mouth to try and stifle her panting, watching the dog monster slowly scan the area around his station. When he was looking in nearly the opposite direction from where she actually was, she dashed for him. Sans let out a silent gasp, just wondering if this kid really had a death wish, when the craziest thing happened. 

When she was within reach, she extended her hands and rubbed them along his neck and spine, or as much as she could with her shorter stature. Then, crazier still, Doggo forcibly flopped forward onto the counter and started freaking out, yelling about “pets”, “pats” and “pots”? What the hell was even going on right now!? He watched slack-jawed as May got a distant look on her face and moved her hand over the downed monster.

Sans recognized that move, and saw that, with his magic restored, Doggo shuddered, whipping back around to May as she shook her head and came back to her senses. As close as she was, she probably wouldn’t have time to dodge if Doggo lashed out with his reawakened magic–

As he’d predicted, Doggo already had a pair of blue magic swords in his hands. He made slashing motions towards May, knocking her back as she’d tried to flinch away from the attack. Doggo then sent one of the magical blue swords flying at her, she tried to hold still, but she must have tweaked one of her cuts, as she flinched just as the attack hit her. May took the hit a lot worse than Sans anticipated. She let out a loud gasp and knelt in the snow, clutching her chest where her soul would be, looking like she hadn’t expected it to hurt that much or something. He took a step forward, still out of view of Doggo, but then he was stopped by the odd gleam of light coming, again, from May’s Soul. Just like last time, some hidden part of her seemed to try and shine out, but it wasn’t able to, for whatever reason. He watched in awe as she got back up and once again got a determined look on her face. The next attack to come at her bounced off a little shield she probably knew how to make, or she was just winging it, which seemed more likely with how she had reacted to everything else thus far. Though the little shield shattered on impact, it allowed her to move closer to Doggo again.

Just like the first time, she got up to the sentry post and petted the dog monster before quickly shuffling back. It was after this point that Sans found himself having a harder and harder time keeping his laughter in, watching this little human go up against one of the fearsome Dog Patrol and beating him with completely untraditional means. May would rush forward after a blue attack, getting close enough to pet the dog monster before stepping back. It wasn’t until a minute or so into this new battle that something changed in Doggo’s demeanor, his eyes widened and his ears went back flat in confusion and surprise.

“Wait…your scent…human child? May pup?!” the guard yipped, suddenly very excited. Jumping over the counter and rushing for the girl, which is when Sans made his presence known, appearing next to May. The dog monster screeched to a halt, ears pointed back and a sneer on his muzzle, “What are you doing here, Sans? Don’t you dare hurt the May pup!”

“chill out, bud. i’m actually here to make sure May doesn’t die to some random monster, like yourself. so we’re on the same page.”

Doggo, while still looking wary, also tilted his head to the side, one of his ears perked up while the other flopped over. Sans didn’t trust that look, but from beside him, May gave a high-pitched giggle, amused by the look on the other monsters face. Though the dog monster’s tail started wagging, Sans felt like he wasn’t going to like what was about to happen.

“But your scent is all over her, enough to cover up the sister’s smell. How is your sister, by the way?” Sans hoped that was the end of that, until he felt, literally felt, May’s mood take a dive as she replied.

“She’s…been better. She’s resting up back at Sans’ house. I…kinda did something stupid, and she tried to protect me, and it got her hurt. It was really bringing me down, so to get my mind off it, Sans suggested I help everyone get their magic back.” She gave a small smile at the end of it, which was a good sign that she was, indeed, doing better.

“Oh, oh no, what happened to her?” Sans was back to feeling on edge with the turn the conversation was taking.

“Well…like I said, I did something stupid. I was trying to get Sans to attack me before he had his magic back. And when I gave him his magic back, he was still attacking, ‘cuz it was the only way for me to see the problem and fix it. So his attack materialized, and…and June jumped in the way…”

Sans stiffened, though, when he noticed Doggo look right at him, despite his lack of movement and May still swinging back and forth beside him distractingly.

“You attacked the June pup? So you were trying to capture them!” He was already conjuring a new set of blue magic swords, looking just about ready to have at the skeleton.

“hey now, stand down before ya do something you’ll end up regretting. may was just tryin’ to get my magic working and she did. the only way to do it is to try throwing an attack at her. it just worked a little too well… i would never intentionally hurt her. honest.”

“Oh, I see…” Now Doggo looked melancholy, reaching over to pat the girl’s shoulder, then looking confused when he touched the jacket May was still wearing, even leaning forward to sniff it, making the girl let out another round of giggles. Sans could feel the sweat collecting on his skull.

“What are you wearing, May pup?”

“Oh, this? I forgot I even had on your jacket, Sans. It’s definitely fulfilled its purpose.”

The look Doggo gave Sans was the worst one yet, a combination of confused and smugly amused. He wished he could wipe it off the dog’s muzzle, but not with May present. The urge intensified at the dog’s next words.

“Are you trying to make a claim on the May pup?”

Sans just… facepalmed at this, once again regretting ever thinking this plan up in the first place. He could also sense May freezes for a moment before resuming her swaying, he side-glanced in her direction and found a nice red blush on her face, probably a match to the one he was sporting.

“Err, well, I mean, he’s not exactly trying to do that…” May stuttered out nervously, which Sans knew was not helping their situation at all.

Doggo looked between the two of them before settling on Sans, “Uh, does she not know what it means to claim? Did you not tell her, or were you just too lazy to do so?”

“No, no, he explained it plenty,” May hastily interjected, waving her hands in front of her a little. “Just, um…it’s…his way of trying to protect me.”

“Ah, alright then,” Then he turned to Sans with the most shit-eating smile and continued with, “That’s so _nice_ of you, Sans.”

Sans could feel his grin curl into a snarl; knowing the implication of the word in their terms. Being called nice was just about one of the worst things that you could call another monster. The worst one being to insinuate that you care about someone else, if you do such a thing, you have to be pretty damn powerful to be able to protect yourself and the one you care for. Nice was also the literal embodiment of May, along with so many other things. One of which was innocent, made obvious by her next comment.

“Of course he’s nice, he’s my friend.” And to add to her statement, she even comes over and gives him a half-hug. Smiling so cutely up at the dog monster, who tried to keep a severe look on his face, but even he couldn’t keep it up under the intensity of May’s soul. He ended up cracking a small smile before moving back over to his station. May was already moving along the path back to Snowdin, probably to catch some more of the Dog Patrol.

But before he could take a step, Doggo grabbed his shoulder, yanked him back and got right up in his face.

“Don’t think I’ll be forgetting this little conversation, _friend._ ” Then he abruptly turned back and jumped back into his station. Sans felt a shudder crawl up his back.

This is pretty much how it goes through the rest of Snowdin Forest; they find the monsters, May fights them til she gets their magic back, they fight some more til they remember her, and repeat with whoever they find next. It starts to get tiring and boring for Sans, but he puts up with it, for her sake.

Thankfully, they seemed to be finishing up, just in time for the Underground to start turning darker, signifying night’s approach. Despite helping out so many people, May was still pretty energetic; where was she keeping all this energy? He’d have to ask her later, when he would be more in the mood to do so. She practically skipped back to the house with Sans following at a more subdued pace. He was plum tired from having to use his magic to make May dodge some of the more deadly magical attacks. It took a lot out of him, and he couldn’t wait to get home and just sleep. But for the moment, he just watched as May danced about excitedly, chattering about having helped so many people, and hoping that June was doing better.

Sans chuckled lightly to himself thinking of the sisters; it was pretty hard to tell who took care of who. Though, that seemed to be the way they did things, one looking out for the other, helping each other no matter what. His smile softened a bit, thinking back on when he and Papyrus were babybones. He remembered the mischief they both got up to, which was expected of kids their age, but he also remembered when Paps would try and heal him after he got into fights with the other kids who tried to make fun of his younger brother. He felt himself come to a halt as the memories came back to him, threatening to pull him into the past, until he heard his name and felt a touch on his arm. Shaking himself, Sans looked down and saw May looking back at him, trying to get his attention.

“Sans? Are you okay? You kinda just stopped in the middle of the street all of a sudden.”

Sans looked around, over-exaggerating it a bit to cover up his absent-mindedness. “huh, so i am. guess i just got too caught up in thinking.”

“About what?” May asked, tilting her head adorably to the side.

“just what pun i’ll tell ya next. it’s not always easy coming up with ‘em, especially when you’re a numbskull like me.” Sans closed one of his eyes, stuffing his hands into his pockets upon hearing May giggle.

“June’s used that one a few times, but it’s not the same as when spoken by a true bonehead!”

“heh, makes sense. June can be quite the sass-ter from what i’ve seen.”

“Pfft, oh my god, I’ve never thought of that one! I’ll have to use it on her some time.”

“sounds good to me, kiddo. no skin off my nose if you go stealin’ my puns.”

With the sound of May’s laugh falling around them as they entered the house, Sans felt an odd, and rare, sense of calm pass over him. As well as a giddy feeling of excitement bubbling up inside him, caused by the way May reacted to him and others, some side-effect of her green soul, probably, strong enough to get him all nostalgic. It was refreshing. She was so weak, no, so kind, and it was hard not to get pulled in. May sure was something else.

“I SEE YOU TWO ARE BACK, TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH. HOW DID IT GO?” Papyrus asked as he came out of his room.

“It was good, we helped just about everyone we could find in Snowdin. It was a lot of work. You could say we worked ourselves to the bone” May held back her giggles, waiting to see Papyrus’ reaction.

They both watched as Papyrus’ eye twitched a few times, and just when Sans was thinking he was going to explode, he instead turned on his heel and stomped into the kitchen without a sound, or at least without more noise than he already made just being around. Seems that he wasn’t the only one affected by the girl’s charm. As he thought this, May walked after Papyrus and gave a big, adorable yawn, even making a little squeak noise and stretching. It just about made Sans giggle, and he wasn’t one for giggling, ever.

“i think someone is more tired than she let on.” Sans says, poking May in the arm once he walked over to her standing in the kitchen doorway.

“I’m only tired now that I’m not keeping myself busy. I’m like the opposite of you, in that regard.” May replied, poking him back, to which Sans retaliated by poking her again, and this went back and forth until Papyrus butted in.

“IF YOU TWO ARE DONE THERE, IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO LET THE SMALL ONE REST. HUMANS NEED SLEEP TO FUNCTION PROPERLY. ESPECIALLY WITH ALL THE MAGIC SHE USED UP TODAY”

“Yeah, I’m kinda beat, now that you mention it…” May stated, her voice sounding a bit woozy and her eyes drifting closed. She yawned real big before glancing between the brothers, “I’m gonna head upstairs and sleep next to June. Just in case, ya know? Anyway, ‘night, guys.”

And with a tired wave, she shuffled off, leaving the brothers to stare after her. They stood there for a moment more before Sans said, “welp, guess that’s my cue to head up myself, you sure you’re okay sleepin’ on the couch, boss?”

Papyrus crossed his arms and leveled a glare at Sans. “AND SLEEP IN YOUR ROOM INSTEAD? I WOULD NEVER STOOP SO LOW. I HAVE STANDARDS, YOU KNOW!”

“heh, whateve’ you say. see ya in the morning.” Without giving his brother time to reply, Sans teleported up to his room. It was actually cleaner that he usually kept it, mainly as the trash tornado had picked most of it, but he took what he could get. He went to take off his hoodie, but realized that May still had it. As he meandered over to his bed, he hoped the small girl would be warm enough tonight, Snowdin got pretty cold when night hit and because they were skeletons (and the cold went right through ‘em) they didn’t really have a proper means to heat up the house. After some debate, he decided to just check on her, and maybe take a couple extra blankets for her and her sister.

Making a stop by the hall closet to grab the blankets, Sans walked up to Pap’s door again, but without any of the hesitation of earlier. Stepping inside, it was near pitch black, so he made his eyelights glow a bit brighter to see around and he stopped when he caught May, not sleeping by her sister, but passed out on the floor by the bed. Sans facepalmed as he assumed the girl didn’t want to disturb her sister nor the brothers and thought this was the best solution. And, the worst (or best, since it was so damn cute) part was that she was curled up in a ball under his hoodie, all the black making her easy to miss in the darkness.

Sighing exasperatedly, he threw the blankets on top of the sleeping form on the floor and then picked her up and carried her down stairs where Papyrus was just settling down to sleep himself. But as he walked down the stairs, he must have jostled her as she suddenly started to squirm. Sans froze, hoping she’d settle back down, and she did, but not before wrapping her arms around his neck and snuggling into his sweater more. He let out a soft groan and kept walking down to the living room, why did she have to be so damn cute while also making his life harder.

“SANS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING DOWN HERE? AND WITH THE TINY HUMAN AT THAT?”

“she was so tired she fell asleep on the floor, thought she might be comfier down here than trying to squeeze in beside her sis or rooming with me.”

Papyrus went quiet for a moment, looking between May and Sans, and seemed to be internally debating what to do. Then Sans watched as a look came over his bro’s face, not one he saw often; it was a look of him trying to do something mischievous. He wasn’t too worried though that it would be that bad. He knew his bro wouldn’t try messing around with the girl (because he had STANDARDS!) and, if anything, it would just be him pulling one of his japes over the girl.

“HMM, YOU MAKE SOME GOOD POINTS. ALRIGHT, FINE, I SHALL TAKE THE TINY HUMAN FOR THE NIGHT.” With that, Papyrus moved back on the couch to make room for when May would be laid down. Once Sans placed her beside his bro, Papyrus covered her with the blanket he had and the one Sans had tossed on her. But now there’s a problem, Sans realizes as he tries to unhooking the girl’s arms from his person, which is proving harder that either brother suspected and anytime they made much progress she’d just make some sleepy noise and readjust herself. It’s getting to the point where Sans is ready to sleep on the floor beside the couch when May lets go of him to stretch out before curling back in on herself, now facing Papyrus. Sans let out a sigh of relief, glad that ordeal was over, but one look at Papyrus’ face showed that there was more to come.

“WELL, GLAD THAT’S FINALLY OVER. SHE SEEMED QUITE ATTATCHED TO YOU. AND SHE IS STILL WEARING YOUR HOODIE…”

Sans felt sweat start to roll down his skull; not this again. “uh, yeah. i wasn’t able to get it from ‘er before she headed off, and it’ll do her more good than me since it’ll keep ‘er warm…”

“AH YES, IT IS TOTALLY NOT YOU TRYING TO CLAIM HER, NOT AT ALL. THIS ALL IS JUST PLATONIC, AS YOU SAY.” Papyrus’ face was incredibly smug as he gestures to the child before him, and Sans really wanted to wipe that look off his face, screw the consequences.

“you shut the fuck up, ya know it’s completely platonic. i said it earlier, i’m just doin’ this to help keep other monsters from takin’ her soul. and if i was claiming ‘er, why would i let ‘er sleep down here rather than in my room?” He froze up, having realized what he’d just said, thankfully, his bro seemed to just roll his eyes (it was hard to tell when he didn’t use his eyelights) and sat up to level a glare at him.

“BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT THERE IS NO PLACE SAFER THAN WITH THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS!! THAT AND YOU AREN’T A SKELETON WHO WOULD SLEEP WITH SOMEONE ON THE FIRST DATE, ESPECIALLY WHEN THAT SOMEONE IS A CHILD.”

Sans blanched and started sputtering, nervous sweat practically pouring down his skull. “uh, no, not at all, not with her. i’m not trying to claim her, boss. seriously, just _drop it._ ”

“I DID DROP IT. EARLIER. NOW I AM PICKING IT BACK UP AGAIN BECAUSE YOU NEED TO-”

“nope, i’m not doing this right now, so i’m out. see ya in the mornin’.”

And with that, Sans blipped out of the room, probably up to his own. Papyrus looked up at his brother’s bedroom door, thinking how rude that was of Sans and he was about to go up there when he heard a small, sleepy moan below him, reminding him that he wasn’t alone. He looked down at the little girl bundled up in several layers of fabric as she scooched closer to him. Papyrus felt his face twitch some at the contact, but decided to put up with it for the night, especially with what he had planned in the morning. He fell asleep with a smirk on his face.


End file.
